MississippiMan, I want to think you very much for all the info you've given me. I just noticed that out of the 23 pages of this whole forum topic the last 4 PAGES have been mostly devoted to questions i have had. After all these questions, I should be able to fully help anyone else who ever decides to do a s-i-l-v-e-r and post questions on here, lol.

MississippiMan, I know you haven't done a s-i-l-v-e-r with the graco gun, and I'm sure we talked about this but when it comes to s-i-l- v-e-r, it says for a gallon of s-i-l-v-e-r you start with 16 oz water. I'm also guessing that to do a quart you would start with 4 oz water. In the experience you've had with s-i-l-v-e-r how much distilled water, over the recommended 16 0z or 4 0z(if your doing a quart) do you find your self putting into the mix to give the best viscosity to spray?? Lets say you do a quart and put in 4 oz water, do you find that 4 oz of water is enough to give a good spray or do you usually add another 1 or 2 oz(for a quart) or 2-4 oz if you are doing a gallon?? It would help me to compare how much water I'm putting vs. how much you would put in. thank you

I always add all the water needed at one time, into a full gallon...not per quart. This because the water / Glaze combo requires both to properly disperse the Silver Metallic into the medium. Also, you want every coat to posses the same consistency, and doing it in that manner assures such.

Even so, acquiring an eye for how the paint pours out into the Gun's Cup is needed.

Please note that after mixing Water / Glaze / Silver that you strain into a clean container for storage / dispersal. You do not strain each load into each Cupful. All you ever have to do after straining is remix the paint every 2 coats or so to evenly disperse the Silver into the mix...avoiding any possible separation.

I think a lot of your issues revolve around second guessing the viscosity because it's so difficult to judge how much paint is being applied with S-I-L-V-E-R. But you already know what happens when you put too much water into the mix.

At very most, 4 additional oz a Gallon should be considered... and that ONLY because you can feel...or not feel as the case may warrant....that the paint does not seem to be flowing evenly out of the gun.

Also, to judge the height of your pattern, you have to shoot onto a practice sheet....holding the Gun in one place for 2 seconds do at to lay down a saturated footprint. Yeah...the paint will run like crazy pretty fast, but still, the visible wet spot will go much further to allow you to judge flow and delivery than trying to judge by looking at what goes down as you actually spray.

Okay im a little concerened. I thought is was okay to make a quart of s-i-l-v-e-r as long as the ratio is correct. For instance for one quart s-i-l-v-e-r I would mix 1 quart faux glaze with 2 oz liquitex silver and 4 oz water.your saying you have to make a gallon

Okay im a little concerened. I thought is was okay to make a quart of s-i-l-v-e-r as long as the ratio is correct. For instance for one quart s-i-l-v-e-r I would mix 1 quart faux glaze with 2 oz liquitex silver and 4 oz water.your saying you have to make a gallon

Nope...I said "WHEN" I make a gallon I mix all the water in then. Of course if you make a Quart at a time, you'd add only the prescribed amount of water for said Quart.

I'm going to go take an Excedrin now..............................................

I'm glad i can be of service, lol. Thanks for all your help dude.
Question...when you push the sock strainer into the graco paint gun container, how far down into the container do you push it??? 1 inch...inch an half, what?? yeah, I feel getting the right viscosity has been the thing that has scared me the most. I've realized how big getting the right or wrong viscosity can really mess things up. I went into the Silver Fire Thread and watched the videos on the straining and believe i have down better now.

The "Sock" is stretched tight across the opening, then depressed to form about 1.5" a deep concave reservoir. As the paint is straining...at the correct rate of addition, it should / will pool about halfway up the depression, then the the weight of the paint pool and gravity should equalize and the rate of "pass through" become steady.

The "Sock" is stretched tight across the opening, then depressed to form about 1.5" a deep concave reservoir. As the paint is straining...at the correct rate of addition, it should / will pool about halfway up the depression, then the the weight of the paint pool and gravity should equalize and the rate of "pass through" become steady.

Now, I know we talked about how fast to run the squirrel cage mixer while mixing but How long do you mix it with the squirrel cage mixer before you actually start testing the viscosity by pouring it through the sock strainer into the paint gun container?? This would apply to, maybe, you've just got home and before you spray you want to mix the s-i-l-v-e-r or you've already strained it and realized the viscosity isn't correct if you need to add some more water to it. How long would you mix it in each instance??.

Okay MississippiMan, I'm going to do some spraying of s-i-l-v-e-r since i have the mix already. I did what you told me when it comes to the straining. I pushed the sock strainer into the paint gun cup 1 and 1/2 inches deep(probably more like 1 3/4 inches though). I poured the s-i-l-v-e-r into the the strainer like you would pour a glass of milk and so on. Here's a video of the straining. Tell me what you think:

That looks real good. I also checked out your "pattern" example.That looks good too, but from what I viewed, you should increase your spraying distance about 3"-4" out to 16" away from the surface. And "Dust" baby, Dust.

That looks real good. I also checked out your "pattern" example.That looks good too, but from what I viewed, you should increase your spraying distance about 3"-4" out to 16" away from the surface. And "Dust" baby, Dust.

That spray pattern from the previous pic was the messed up, SUPER diluted version i did a while back and my normal formula is the right one. This s-i-l-v-e-r formula is temperamental. I did some test spraying with the viscosity on the video up top and i had to dial back the paint flow trigger because it was spitting. It wasn't spitting when it had a little less water of viscosity before that test up top. I'm going to let it sit out over night to take some of the water out and get it back to the viscosity before the video i posted up top. Now, I am using the 3900 turbine and i was wondering if the added pressure from the 3900 vs using the 2900 will make a diff in how this paint will flow out of my gun..Will it effect things??? Since the 3900 give more air does that mean my s-i-l-v-e-r doesn't have to be quite as diluted???

So, one night of letting the mixture sit out and it has a better viscosity this time. Paint doesn't flow through the sock strainer quite as much but it should spray good now. I'll give it a go morrow. Here's an updated video of the viscosity now. Sorry for the clarity of the video. I'm using my camera....I made sure to leave out the Christmas music this time, LOL

I noticed that after you were done pouring how quickly it took the rest of the paint to spill out of the sock strainer and into the paint gun cup underneath. I then compared it to how long it took my paint to empty out the paint strainer into the cup underneath and noticed how MUCH slower my s-i-l-v-e-r was draining in the video's above. Should s-i-l-v-e-r be straining with the same frequency as silver fire. IF you wouldn't mind have a look at my video's and see what i'm talking about.

MississippiMan, early you said when it comes to viscosity of the mixes it was " The Lack there of". When it comes to the mixes and viscosity what do you mean?? once the mixes achieve the right viscosity do they have a high viscosity or a low viscosity once proper viscosity is reaches?? Are these mixes supposed to thick or thin when it comes to proper viscosity??

So, I did 7 coats on test piece and i must say that this is a very neutral grey. It reminds me a lot of the behr silver screen paint, meaning the neutrality of the grey. It wasn't a overpowering grey like Silver Fire. It did take on more of a silver color as the the paint dried in the last 2 days. The grey stuck out more once i put it up against a plain white like my TWH. It does give a little better darker colors and maintains the whites better then the behr or silver fire.

When it comes to S-I-L-V-E-R, i think what has confused me the most is the varying amounts of water people have used for their mixes. They follow as such:

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelscott73

Thanks

So using the Double Duty with the following forumla and ratios I should be good to go:

1/2 gallon Behr Faux Glaze

4 oz. Delta Ceramcoat Silver Metallic from Michael's Arts & Crafts

(Substituted for the darker Behr Silver Metallic)

20 oz. Filtered Water

That one they made up half a gallon(little more once you factor in the 20 oz water) but used 20 oz water for just half gallon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelscott73

So I mixed 1/2 Gallon with what ended up being probably 28oz of water and 5oz of silver. I've finished maybe 10 coats with the gun fully open...maybe going a little faster than 3 ft./second on application. I still have 3/4 of a half gallon of mix left....guess that equates to about half of what I mixed up....50 oz.

The question is...do you think I am done?

That one they used 28 oz water for his half gallon mix.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb_maxxx

the prescribed mix is 5% metallic and 95% glaze...

personally, my preference is...

32 oz glaze

24 oz water

8 oz delta silver.

mix thoroughly. did i say thoroughly?!

7-8 dusters.

yes. better blacks than a white screen.

no i can't give out MM's password. also the wagner vid shows MM doing full coats... not dusters.

that one where he used 24 oz water for just one quart of s-i-l-v-e-r( yes i know the formula equals over 64 oz, I just call it what the size of the Behr Faux glaze is)

Then there is of course the formula you gave me when i asked it few pages back:

Mix into 2 gallon Bucket w/Lid
Use the Squirrel Cage Mixer (best price... and Free "A-Prime" delivery)http://www.amazon.com/Homax-69011-1-Gallon-PolyPro-Galvanized/dp/B000ELORFE
After mixing and straining, a test using the Gun determines how much if any more water is required. Also, the size Needle Tip. Using a 2.0 Tip that comes with the Graco, you must absolutely practice quick, rapid Dusters from a specific distance. With a 1.5 mm tip, things are a bit more refined. Dusters are still the order at hand, but the method of applying becomes less frenetic.

When most of these guys were making up some s-i-l-v-e-r they were usually using way more water then 16 oz. That was confusing me. I was reading some of those post and thinking if that one dude used 20 oz water with 1/2 Behr Faux glaze, and 4oz silver then since I'm doing a gallon plus of s-i-l-v-e-r i should probably use 40 oz of water.
Also, if you remember i asked you that " if you were making a gallon plus mix of s-i-l-v-e-r you said "You would use 1 gallon of faux glaze, 8 oz silver and no more then 4 oz extra of water equalling 20 oz water total for the completed mix" so that would be

silver in traditional form... is as MM has the ingredients.
the water.. as posted is a minimum based upon the more powerful sprayers such as the wagner double duty... which has head unit/needle that exeeds 2mm.

we stress getting the right viscosity for your sprayer and that means experimenting to find out how to get plume for your sprayer without spitting, etc. the smaller the needle, or less power your unit has... the more water you'll need to add to your mix.

never fear... the water evaporates... so in the end it doesn't matter... except for how many coats may be required to get the coverage necessary to evenly distribute the mica and have them in a density that allows silver to excel at what it does.

as for MY personal silver mix... it was not meant to confuse. i'm simply attacking the silver/mica density more quickly and wanting to do it with less coats. but i've been spraying for quite some time now... and i would not expect you/others to achieve the same results.

silver in traditional form... is as MM has the ingredients.
the water.. as posted is a minimum based upon the more powerful sprayers such as the wagner double duty... which has head unit/needle that exeeds 2mm.

we stress getting the right viscosity for your sprayer and that means experimenting to find out how to get plume for your sprayer without spitting, etc. the smaller the needle, or less power your unit has... the more water you'll need to add to your mix.

never fear... the water evaporates... so in the end it doesn't matter... except for how many coats may be required to get the coverage necessary to evenly distribute the mica and have them in a density that allows silver to excel at what it does.

as for MY personal silver mix... it was not meant to confuse. i'm simply attacking the silver/mica density more quickly and wanting to do it with less coats. but i've been spraying for quite some time now... and i would not expect you/others to achieve the same results.

okay, cool... that helps clear things up. Since i am using the Graco Spraystation 3900 that is why mississippiman gave the formula that he did. glad to get that cleared up.

Okay, so I made up a small batch of s-i-l-v-e-r using 1 qt Behr Faux glaze, 2 oz silver and 4 oz of water. Since a gallon plus of s-i-l-v-e-r would require 16 oz water and i was making a 1/4 of that i used 4 oz water. I then added 1 tbs of more water to thin out bit more. I'm guessing if you add water in 2 oz spurts for a gallon plus of the this stuff then take 2 oz and divide it by 4 which is 1/2 oz which equals 1 tbs. Did some test spray and was getting some good size spiting coming out of it so i added 1 more tbs water. That seemed to stop the spitting and was getting a better feeling of the paint exiting the gun.
Next concern was the spray patteren size. At about 14 inches from the substrate is was producing a 7- 8 inch long spray pattern. I had to let the trigger stayed engaged for about 2 or 3 seconds before i could see the pattern. So, do you think i should add 1 more tbs water???

Well, Did a test spray and the pattern was beautiful! I did forget to do one little, big, thing though. I forgot to make that first coat a really quick, light duster, since i was spraying onto the thrifty White Hardwood with its glossy surface, and the paint receded and gathered together into a bunch of drops. Should have remembered that. I wiped it down and will start over tomorrow.
Thanks for all your help MississippiMan!!